How much does a sleeper agent sleep?
by xfmoon
Summary: A memory from Lucy's childhood makes a little more sense to her in hindsight.


**A/N:** Still with the crazy summer story ideas, must be the heatwave we're having.

 **Spoilers:** Not really for anything, unless you read my crazy ramblings of an end note, then for everything just to be sure.

 **Disclaimer:** I love to sleep; maybe that's why I don't own the rights to Timeless.

* * *

"Mom, I know what I want to be when I grow up." A nine-year-old Lucy told her mother.

"What's that, honey?"

"A sleeper agent." She exclaimed excitedly.

"A what now?" Carol was taken aback.

"A sleeper agent." Lucy repeated.

"Where did you hear that word?"

"I heard you and granny talking about it."

"And why do you want to be a sleeper agent, dear?" Carol questioned.

"Because they get paid to sleep." Was Lucy's simple answer.

"That's not exactly what they do." Carol said being a tiny bit amused by her daughter.

Lucy crinkled her brows. "What do they do then?"

"You don't have to worry about that." Carol said anxiously over having had Lucy overhear a very private conversation. "And besides I thought you were going to be a historian, like me." She said trying to stir the conversation in another direction.

"Can't I be both?" Lucy wanted to know.

Carol couldn't say no to her daughter's inquisitive face and sparkling eyes. Instead she told her: "You can be whatever you want, but you'll always be my princess." Then she hugged her tightly.

"Mo-om." Lucy complained.

"I wanna be sleeps age too." Amy chimed in, wanting to be part of the conversation as well.

"We can't both be sleeper agents, Amy." Lucy said sulking.

"But I like sleeps." The toddler said.

Carol trying to defuse the situation picked up her youngest, saying: "You can go sleep now, how about that?"

Amy cheered. And Lucy just shook her head at her baby sister.

"What is that I hear?" Henry popped his head around the corner to the room. "Are you changing careers, sweetie?"

"Yes." Lucy proclaimed proudly.

"And here I thought that you would be able to lull me to sleep in my old age with your history lectures, just like your mother."

"Hey, that's not fair." Carol said lovingly bumping his side as she walked away with the sleepy Amy. Adding conspiratorially: "I know for a fact that you love my lectures." when she walked past him.

Henry grabbed her before she was out of arms reach, swung her and Amy halfway around and kissed them both. Amy giggled and Carol just smiled lingering in his embrace for a second before starting to leave again. Lucy frowned and made a face at the overly cuteness of it all.

"You want a smooch too, I can see it." Henry said bending down low like a predator and started towards Lucy. She squealed in delight and ran away from her father, but he caught her easily. Swung her around a few times, then put her down.

"Dad, don't do that. I'm not a little girl anymore." She scolded but wasn't really mad.

"You will always be my little girl." He said and smiled at her stance, with both her hands firmly pressed against her hips. Just like her mother did when she was annoyed.

"Tell me about this new revelation of yours."

"I want to be a sleeper agent, so I can sleep all day long." Lucy told him.

"You know what honey, that sounds like a great idea."

Lucy beamed at her dad's supportiveness.

"Mom said they don't sleep, so what do they do? And why are they called something with sleep in it if they don't do that?"

"It's more like they are dormant." Henry explained.

"Like polar bears? Lucy asked. "But that's a form of sleep too, right?"

"Yes, dormant polar bears sleep. But sleeper agents are more like..." He thought about it for a moment. "It's when people who don't belong somewhere go there and pretend they're like everybody else, so it's like they're asleep there. Then at some point someone comes and wakes them up, and makes them do something to the people that now trusts them and thinks they're one of them. Does that make sense?"

Lucy shook her head, and said: "But that doesn't sound very nice."

"You're right, it's usually not." He said in a serious tone.

"Where did you hear that word again, Lucy? On television?"

"No, grandma was here earlier. She said something about it to mom."

He got a strange look on his face, one that Lucy hadn't seen before, but concealed it quickly. "You go play now, sweetie," He said. "I need to talk to your mother."

However Lucy didn't listen but followed him, making sure he didn't see her. He met up with her mother in the living room. The picture-perfect happy family ideal already gone when she got there. Her hiding place was out of earshot, but there was no doubt about it; they were arguing, though trying to keep the volume down because of her and Amy, who was napping.

The nine-year-old Lucy thought it might be because of her, because of something she'd said, of her wanting to be a sleeper agent perhaps. Since both her parents had acted a bit weird to the news. So, she decided right then and there that she didn't want to be that anymore. She still wanted to be a historian like her mother; she loved the books about Einstein, and Churchill, and other historical people that her mother read for her and Amy. Maybe she could be a singing historian. She loved to sing. And singing about history would be a lot more fun than sleeping all day long anyway.

 **xXx**

Having just come back from her Rittenhouse captivity and having figured out the whole sleeper agent plot Lucy had suddenly remembered this seemingly insignificant incident from her childhood. Her happy childhood; with her sister, that hadn't disappeared yet, and her dad, that was still her father, and her mother that wasn't Rittenhouse. And she wondered now how much her dad had known back then. Did he know he wasn't her real father? Did he know about Rittenhouse, about her mother's involvement with them? Was that why they were arguing that day, or had it just been a normal spousal disagreement over who did and didn't do the dishes? Maybe Rittenhouse had been behind his sudden and untimely death. If he had known anything about them Lucy was sure he wouldn't have condoned what they were doing, but then again, she had thought the same about her mother. Her sweet innocent mother that wasn't so sweet and innocent after all.

All these thoughts and questions she would never know the answers too swam around in her head, and not in nice and straight lanes either; some were breast stroking one way, and others were backstroking the other, while some again where butterflying across and all over the place. Lucy was a mess at the moment and all these thoughts weren't helping. Not even recovered childhood memories, they didn't do any good now.

A lot had changed since her nine-year-old self had wanted to sleep for a living. Sure, she could use the sleep right now. But sleeper agent was no longer at the top of her career list. Not that time traveler had been anywhere near the list at all. But that's what she was now. She'd outlived singer. And her lifelong quest to be as good of a historian as her mother had been a manipulation from the start; a way for her to be useful, be an asset for Rittenhouse. She still loved history, but this had tainted the profession for her and put a damper on her love for it somewhat. A time traveler, though crazy and rather unimaginable, was what she was left with.

To this day she still didn't know how much sleep a sleeper agent averaged, but one thing was for sure, a time traveler slept when they could, because you never knew when your next mission was.

* * *

 **A/N:** I was very sleepy when I got the idea for this. Early morning, about to get up and go to work, but not really wanting to; let me be a sleeper agent too, just 5 more minutes. However, I don't think it turned out as great as the idea in my head.

I think that the original Carol Preston, the one that didn't tell Lucy about her legacy, was different from the one we ended up with. In that, her love for, and being loved by Henry Wallace, made her a better person. Much like Lucy did for Wyatt. And like "the doc" and a few others we've met she didn't want her children to grow up and be part of Rittenhouse, even though their family is practically royalty. Lucy said, that her mother always said that it was love at first sight, and that changes people I bet. So, I would much rather have had the original Carol back, or at least have had her redemption be more so on the show. I'm sure she loved Lucy, she did save her in the end after all, but her dying wish kinda killed the redemption of it all. Bummer.

I don't think I've come across any fics with Henry Wallace in them. Can someone explain why Lucy and Amy are named Preston and not Wallace. Were Carol and Henry not married? Divorced maybe, keeping their mother's name? He was their dad, so didn't they think it odd. I got the impression that Carol was with him against Rittenhouse's wishes, so if Rittenhouse didn't allow it, wouldn't she just have said screw them? Also, any idea about Henry's profession? And why did he die so young? Logically I don't think he would have known anything about Rittenhouse. *Sigh* so many questions never to be answered. Why oh why can't we have more Timeless. Still crying about this.


End file.
